Kerry "Corrects Record," "Seared" Memory of Christmas in Cambodia Now "Mistaken Recollection"

Wednesday, August 11, 2004 | Kristinn

[kristinn]

In an interview this morning on Fox and Friends, Kerry spokeman Jeh Johnson backed off of Democrat presidential nominee Senator John Kerry's repeated statements that he had spent Christmas 1968 on a secret mission in Cambodia.

Fox's Brian Kilmead asked Mr. Johnson whether Sen. Kerry would release the action report from January 20, 1969 regarding purported action in Cambodia.

Mr. Johnson said, "I believe you're referring to an incident that happened near Cambodia. Okay, well John Kerry has said on the record that he had a mistaken recollection earlier. He talked about a combat situation on Christmas Eve, 1968, which at one point he said occurred in Cambodia. He has since corrected the record to say it was someplace on a river near Cambodia and he is certain that at some point subsequent to that he was in Cambodia. My recollection, my understanding is he was not certain about that date.

Mr. Kilmead brought up Sen. Kerry's 1986 floor speech in the Senate where he talked about spending Christmas in Cambodia as being "seared---seared" in his memory.

Mr. Johnson replied, "I believe he's corrected the record to say it was someplace near Cambodia, but he is not certain whether it was actually in Cambodia but he is certain that there was some point subsequent to that that he was in Cambodia."

Mr. Johnson also repeated Sen. Kerry's canard that he left Yale in 1966 and turned down all options to further his education by choosing to serve his country. As was (barely) reported in March of this year, Sen. Kerry asked for and was denied a one year deferment to study in Paris.

[mewzilla]

Mr. Johnson replied, "I believe he's corrected the record to say it was someplace near Cambodia, but he is not certain whether it was actually in Cambodia but he is certain that there was some point subsequent to that that he was in Cambodia."

What does the above quote mean?

It's called a non-denial denial.

[rwfromkansas]

Hmmm....well, he was certain he was sent on a 'secret mission' up until last year, so I wonder what made him so suddenly forget his "secret mission" and have a "mistaken recollection?"

lol

[HenryLeeII]

Thank you for the response. The more that comes out on Kerry the more he seems like Clinton! I didn't watch the introduction at the Dem Convention, but I did catch most of his speech. All he has to offer is Vietnam, and now that is crumbling. Hopefully the public will take note and decide they don't want another pathological liar in the White House like we had before Dubya!

[BlueLancer]

"It's called a non-denial denial.

Oooo, I love to dance a little sidestep,
Now they see me, now they don’t, I’ve come and gone.
And, oooo, I love to sweep around the wide step,
Cut a little swath and lead the people on.

[rolling_stone]

lottery didnt come out till Dec 1, 1969...Kerry was already in service and had been to Cambodia...

[bray]

Good point, it would have been DEMOCRAT President LBJ that would have ordered him into Cambodia! He was still trying to damage President Nixon with his lying statements and recently comparing W to Nixon. This lie is confirmed and the next question should be blindfold & Cigarette??

Pray for W and Our Troops

[Paved Paradise]

Maybe when "his" people go to vote, they'll punch the hole NEAR his name.

[Cuttnhorse]

I can almost promise he was never in Cambodia. For one, the Swifts had great radar on board and the navigation charts were very accurate. We could easily locate our position within a 1/4 mile and with any effort within a hundred yards.

Also, at least when I was in Coastal Div. 11, (1965-66) we were constantly warned about venturing too near the Cambodian border area due to intellegence reports stating that the Cambodians had some left over patrol boats from the French that were bigger, faster and a lot better armed than our Swifts. I recall patrolling in the Cambodia border area and being on constant radar lookout for a large, fast-moving radar contact. The word was they would engage our boats if they could find us.

For Kerry to promote that he somehow was over the sea border in Cambodian waters by accident is a flat lie. I just wasn't possible unless the man is completely incompetent...but then I belabor the obvious.

Cheers all

[JoeSixPack1]

It was "Seared.....Seared" into his memory,


I can't stop laughing at this one which is now SEARED....SEARED into my memory!! ROFL!! :-)

This is sooooo good, it does not matter if it makes a dent in his popularity or not, for 33 years his quote withstood criticism, yesterday it was finally exposed for the lie it was!

[wildbill]

I don't understand your post. As I recall it, the lottery was posted each Dec. for the following year. When did Kerry graduate? His student deferment would have been up at that point and he would have been facing the draft according to his lottery number.

And you had to make the choice pretty quick if you wanted to avoid being drafted. If you got called up for your physical, you could no longer vounteer for officer's schools. When did he volunteer?

This has nothing to do with Cambodia.

[gimme1ibertee]

....Wearing his blue bunny/sperm man suit, no doubt!!:)

[texasbluebell]

This lie is confirmed and the next question should be blindfold & Cigarette??

We've got an awful lot of people who should be asked that question these days...

[browardchad]

I vaguely recall an article someone posted here maybe two months ago, in which it was revealed that Kerry had given an anti-war speech before going to Vietnam

From Kranish in the Boston Globe, 6/16/03:

He enlisted as a Navy officer candidate despite his criticisms as Yale's class orator of America's intervention in Southeast Asia. He would become a war hero, recipient of the Silver and Bronze stars, but would also become an antiwar leader, causing some former crewmates to feel he had betrayed them.

There's a lot of other goodies in this article, such as this reference to Christmas Eve in Cambodia:

The Christmas Eve truce of 1968 was three minutes old when mortar fire exploded around John Forbes Kerry and his five-man crew on a 50-foot aluminum boat near Cambodia. ''Where is the enemy?'' a crewmate shouted.

>>snip<<

"On the same night, Kerry and his crew had come within a half-inch of being killed by "friendly fire," when some South Vietnamese allies launched several rounds into the river to celebrate the holiday.

To top it off, Kerry said, he had gone several miles inside Cambodia, which theoretically was off limits, prompting Kerry to send a sarcastic message to his superiors that he was writing from the Navy's "most inland" unit.

And then there's this reference, explaining why he chose swift boat detail:

Kerry initially hoped to continue his service at a relatively safe distance from most fighting, securing an assignment as "swift boat" skipper. While the 50-foot swift boats cruised the Vietnamese coast a little closer to the action than the Gridley had come, they were still considered relatively safe.

"I didn't really want to get involved in the war," Kerry said in a little-noticed contribution to a book of Vietnam reminiscences published in 1986. "When I signed up for the swift boats, they had very little to do with the war. They were engaged in coastal patrolling and that's what I thought I was going to be doing."

To sum up, he was near Cambodia, but also in Cambodia on Christmas Eve; he was against the Vietnam war before he was for the Vietnam war before he was against the Vietnam war; he -- according to Clinton's convention speech, said "Send me!" -- but only where there was "very little to do with the war."

[rolling_stone]

the first draft lottery was in dec 1969 before that no lottery..before the lottery everyone had no idea if they would be drafted or not, but could assume so if they ended their deferments..dropping out of school usually meant "reporting for duty" ....also deferments changed due to its unfairness...take a look at the movie Big Wednesday, its a surf movie but has some very realistic scenes about the era..

[EDINVA]

"Okay, well John Kerry has said on the record that he had a mistaken recollection earlier .."

WHEN? WHERE?

[Kozak]

I myself am still reserving judgment. Rassman is a good eyewitness and I frankly would not know why he'd distort the account intentionally. otoh, if the boats were all in same vicinity, they'd all know whether enemy were around or not.

I don't know. In the Wall Street Journal editorial he wrote yesterday he makes it sound like when he went over the side, all the other boats took off and only Kerry stuck around to save him. BUT 3 other guys went in the water too and the reports have the other boats rallying around them and picking them up when Kerrys took off at high speed, then latter came back. Maybe he missed all that while trying to hug the bottom and not get killed, which is understandable.

WHATS NOT understandable or acceptable is his using the term "Swift Boat Veterans for Bush" over and over in the editorial ( it's also the headline ) NEVER calling them by their proper name. This is right out of the DNC talking points, with the SAME formulation being used by the Rat spin meisters.

[Howlin]

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/TheNote/TheNote.html

Last night, Kerry adviser Michael Meehan responded to the claims in an interview with ABC's Stu Chamberlain.

"The Mekong Delta consists of the border between Cambodia and Vietnam, so on Christmas Eve in 1968, hr was in fact on patrol … in the Mekong Delta between Cambodia and Vietnam. He was ambushed, they fired back, he was fired upon from both sides, from the Cambodian side and the Vietnam side during that day in 1968." "What I've seen in this book is a bunch of people lying about John Kerry did. John Kerry actually did command a boat in Vietnam, ran patrols along the border in the waters, on behalf of the United States in 1968 and 1969."

[SunkenCiv]

KERRY USED "CAMBODIA" AS RECENT AS 2003
Crosswalk News ^ | 8.11.2004
Posted on 08/11/2004 6:55:15 AM PDT by KMC1
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1189390/posts

URLs worth repeating from this topic:

The "Cambodia" story is still on the Kerry/Edwards web site!
Check it out. While its still there!
152 posted on 08/11/2004 8:00:16 AM PDT by P-Marlowe
http://www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/news/news_2003_0601.html

http://www.cordonbleu.net/flashindex.html

http://www.boston.com/globe/nation/packages/kerry/061503.shtml

George Butler interview.
http://www1.whdh.com/features/articles/specialreport/DBM564/

John Kerry's Vietnam War journal
http://www.boston.com/globe/nation/packages/kerry/journal_day2.shtml

http://instapundit.com/archives/017068.php

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1189092/posts

http://www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/news/news_2003_0601.html

"Exploding the myth that brave Kerry said "send me!" to the fight... in his own words!"
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1189361/posts
http://www.google.com.au/search?q=cache:rCHBXsLxdIEJ:www.scienceblog.com/community/older/archives/K/2/pub2117.html+Report+pdf+1969+kerry&hl=en
But compare this to...
http://www.johnkerry.com/about/john_kerry/combat_reports.html
Where is the Spot Report for January 1969 now??
144 posted on 08/11/2004 7:45:15 AM PDT by igoramus987

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